Feng shui puts all things in their proper place

Updated 1:27 am, Monday, August 20, 2012

Real estate broker and consultant Alicia Bosch-Kiser, left, and feng shui practitioner Alison Schockner discuss improvements that could be made to speed up the sale of a home.

Real estate broker and consultant Alicia Bosch-Kiser, left, and feng shui practitioner Alison Schockner discuss improvements that could be made to speed up the sale of a home.

Photo: John Davenport, San Antonio Express-News

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Donna Fritsch came up with the design in the main living area of her San Antonio home after consulting with feng shui expert Alison Schockner. Schockner also suggested trimming the front yard tree or using color to emphasize the front door, right. And she said homes are more likely to sell when personal items, such as family pictures, aren't displayed.

Donna Fritsch came up with the design in the main living area of her San Antonio home after consulting with feng shui expert Alison Schockner. Schockner also suggested trimming the front yard tree or using

Feng Shui practitioner Alison Schockner suggested to real estate broker Alicia Bosch-Kiser that homes are more likely to sell when personal items such as family pictures aren't displayed. (Tuesday June 26,

Donna Fritsch came up with the design in the main living area of her San Antonio home after consulting with feng shui expert Alison Schockner. Schockner also suggested trimming the front yard tree or using color to emphasize the front door, right. And she said homes are more likely to sell when personal items, such as family pictures, aren't displayed.

Donna Fritsch came up with the design in the main living area of her San Antonio home after consulting with feng shui expert Alison Schockner. Schockner also suggested trimming the front yard tree or using

Feng Shui practitioner Alison Schockner (left) suggested some improvements for the upstairs game room in this home that is currently on the market might be placing this hammock in the back yard. Schockner was consulting for real estate broker Alicia Bosch-Kiser (right). (Tuesday June 26, 2012)

Feng Shui practitioner Alison Schockner (left) suggested some improvements for the upstairs game room in this home that is currently on the market might be placing this hammock in the back yard. Schockner was

Feng Shui practitioner Alison Schockner suggested some improvements for the back yard of this home that is currently for sale such as some potted shrubbery, some lattice over the bricks that are under the stairwell, and a table and chairs on the concrete patio. She also suggested that a hammock in an upstairs game room might be more well suited for the back yard.

Feng Shui practitioner Alison Schockner suggested some improvements for the back yard of this home that is currently for sale such as some potted shrubbery, some lattice over the bricks that are under the

Feng Shui practitioner Alison Schockner, left, suggests some improvements for the home that broker Alicia Bosch-Kiser is trying to help her client sell.

Feng Shui practitioner Alison Schockner, left, suggests some improvements for the home that broker Alicia Bosch-Kiser is trying to help her client sell.

Photo: John Davenport, Staff

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Donna Fritsch keeps a painting with a water motif in the entry hall by her front door along with a black ornament. Fritsch uses this technique and other feng shui methods in her home after consulting with expert Alison Schockner. (Monday August 13, 2012) John Davenport/2012San Antonio Express-News

Donna Fritsch keeps a painting with a water motif in the entry hall by her front door along with a black ornament. Fritsch uses this technique and other feng shui methods in her home after consulting with

Donna Fritsch keeps mirrors facing windows near the entry hall by her front door at her north San Antonio home. Fritsch uses this technique and other feng shui methods in her home after consulting with expert Alison Schockner. (Monday August 13, 2012) John Davenport/2012San Antonio Express-News

Donna Fritsch keeps mirrors facing windows near the entry hall by her front door at her north San Antonio home. Fritsch uses this technique and other feng shui methods in her home after consulting with expert

The sword hanging on the wall stopped Alison Schockner in her tracks. Originally from the Congo, it was large and dangerous looking. But it wasn't the long, malevolent-looking blade that caught Schockner's attention.

The problem was the sword was in the marriage portion of Donna Fritsch's house.

Schockner spotted it while doing a feng shui consultation for Fritsch.

"I've lived in this house for coming on three years, and there's always been something wrong with the living room," says Fritsch, who is retired from the Army Medical Command at Fort Sam Houston. "I had taken a feng shui class years ago and decided I needed help, so I called Alison."

Feng shui is an ancient Chinese practice that purports to create harmony and balance in life by releasing blocked energy, or chi, in a home, office or other structure.

"I call it acupuncture for the home," says Schockner, 63. "The same way an acupuncturist releases energy blocks with needles and herbs, we look to restore the flow of chi so when you walk into your home, you feel comfortable."

Feng shui has several schools. The one Schockner practices is called the Three Door. The practice originated in China several thousand years ago and was adapted for Western sensibilities in the early '70s by professor Lin Yun, an authority on feng shui. Schockner studied with Yun and several of his disciples in California during the early 1990s.

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The Three Door school divides the home into nine sections — three across and three down - like superimposing a tic-tac-toe grid on the home. Each section represents a part of life. The back right section, for example, represents marriage; the back left is wealth, the front center is career, the center square is health and so forth.

Impeding the chi in an area of the home will negatively affect the corresponding part of the family's life, practitioners say. Unblocking the chi should improve things.

"When I saw that sword in the marriage section of Fritsch's home, I knew right away it had to go," Schockner says. "It was bad for the energy in the room and for the relationship portion of her life."

Schockner found several other problem areas in Fritsch's home during the 90-minute consultation. A sofa and end table all but blocked the entrance to the living room. Schockner explained that the furniture stymied the flow of energy in the room the same way it impeded traffic to the heart of the room.

Schockner's prescription: Move the sofa and table to one side of the room to release the blockage the same way removing a dam restores a river's flow.

"I rearranged the furniture, and it made things 1,000 percent better," Fritsch later said. "I never used to go into that room unless I had company. Now it's much more welcoming."

Schockner found another energy crisis in the master bedroom. The master bath opens onto the bed, washing yin chi across it. Yin chi, she explains, pulls energy away, as opposed to yang chi, which pushes it forward.

"So as Donna sleeps in the path of bathroom, her energy will be pulled away, which can disrupt her sleep and leave her tired and listless," says Schockner.

Because the bathroom doesn't have a door she can close (the usual prescription), Fritsch hung a linen curtain in the doorway.

"She could have left her clothes and stuff in the bedroom and slept somewhere else, but people usually don't want to go to that extreme," Schockner says.

Closing doors and moving furniture isn't all Schockner does. As she guides Fritsch through the home, she explains how each section is associated with one or more colors. The marriage section, for example, is associated with the color pink, the wealth area with purple, gold or green.

Schnocker suggests adding a symbolic item of the prescribed color to each section. In the marriage section, for example, it might be a photo of two people in a pink frame, or even a pair of pink candlestick holders. In the wealth section, a client once added small gold oil derrick to signify abundance.

"Every time you see the colored object it serves as a reminder — even on a subconscious level — to reinforce the intention," explains Schockner. "If you want to paint or write more, you'd have something white in the creativity area, the middle right section of the home. If you want to save money, the prompt might be a piggy bank in the back left corner of the home."